


native tongue

by theformerone



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming Out, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, Homophobic Language, Lesbophobic Language/D slur, Reclaimed Slurs, self discovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 11:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14852051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: Those words, all of them sound different when she says them.Prequel to'oh i love your history (and i can taste it)'





	native tongue

**Author's Note:**

> title lifted from Native Tongue by Paramore

She's taught that they're dirty words. Ones she shouldn't say. Ones she should pray never apply to her, are never thrown at her. While she is the heir of her clan, they are words she is not allowed to identify with. She can't be  _one of those_ girls and produce heirs for her clan. 

Her father never says them, and neither do her elders, but she knows what they are. She's heard them whispered about other girls at the academy, other kunoichi in her year, in those above and below her. She dreads going on missions with Mitarashi-san, because her cousins spit those words about the jounin. And she rather likes Shizune-san and the Godaime, but her father will not let her be healed by either of them. If she comes home from a mission hurt in some way, she will see the private family physician on the Hyūga compound.

It makes no difference that the Godaime is the Godaime, or that she loved a man in her youth. It's who she loves now that condemns her to the Hyūga. 

And what makes her, and Shizune-san, and Mitarashi-san, so incredible to Hinata. 

So she crafts an elaborate crush on Naruto, a fancy story meant to quell her family when they look at her the wrong way. They don't like that she's so enamored with a demon, but at least the demon is a boy.

* * *

At fourteen, Hinata is assigned a mission with Haruno Sakura and Tenten, under Mitarashi's lead. Her family tries to intervene, citing a health concern, but the Godaime knows Hinata has a clean bill of health, so she's sent on the mission. 

It's an easy kidnapping, or rather, a re-napping. The child is ten years old, the heir to a rice farming dynasty in Hot Springs, and he's very eager to go home. The mission goes off almost entirely without a hitch. They ambush the bounty hunters that had tried to steal the child. Mitarashi-san's snakes are very clever, and Tenten's aim is true. Sakura punches a hole straight through a tree, and Hinata defends the child from any stray fire. 

They're back on the road to Konoha by morning. 

They stop in a border town on the way back, and Mitarashi-san gives them some free time, offering to watch their ward while her young team goes out to buy souvenirs ("But only if you bring me back my wallet's worth in dumplings!"). Hinata goes out because she rarely has the opportunity at home, and while she's there, she sees something extraordinary. 

Tenten and Sakura hold hands. 

Their fingers are interlocked, and they walk in step with one another. They don't even seem the least bit concerned. Hinata doesn't know what to do with the information. She hadn't ever guessed that Sakura and Tenten would both be  _those kind_ of girls. 

She doesn't open her mouth to say anything because what would she say? And besides, she isn't that type of person. She has nothing against  _that kind_ of girl, not personally. And Sakura and Tenten are her teammates, her friends. 

A passing man doesn't think the same way. 

He says one of the words that Hinata dreads to hear whispered under the breaths of her clansmen, snickered under the breath when a woman with hair too short walks by. 

"It's a little dyke brigade."

In the moment it takes Hinata's heart to fall out of her chest, Sakura has grabbed the much taller man by the collar, and dragged him down to her level. He's a shinobi, that much is true, but he doesn't expect a girl who looks like Sakura to get the jump on him. 

"And what about it?" she says, voice hard and mean before she headbutts him. 

She does the whole thing without letting go of Tenten's hand. 

The little ordeal causes a small international incident, and is one that Mitarashi-san has to quell when Sakura is almost arrested. 

"Pick your battles better, kid," Mitarashi-san, but she doesn't really sound all that upset. 

Sakura hardly looks like she's been chastised by her commanding officer or a foreign head of state. 

"He should've picked his words better," she replies. "I may be a dyke, but he doesn’t get to call me one. He’s lucky I only broke his nose.”

Hinata can't breathe the entire way back to Konoha. Not because she's frightened, but because she's never heard a girl call herself  _that_ instead of having to suffer being called it by someone else. 

* * *

At fifteen, the girls in Hinata's year have gotten to know each other well enough that having lunch or dinner every couple of weeks becomes commonplace. Hinata likes it, and never offers the Hyūga compound for these get togethers. For one, she remembers what Sakura called herself, what Tenten didn't deny, and she's heard the rumors about Sakura and Ino. 

She doesn't want to put her friends in a place they aren't safe.

Ino's place gets offered because it's the largest; Tenten is an orphan, and Sakura comes from a civilian family with an income too modest to marvel the Yamanaka estate. 

"How's Temari?" Sakura asks on one of these nights, when they're all eating sweets on Ino's bedroom floor.

Sakura uses the wrappers from hers to bury Ino's feet. Tenten is folding them into origami shuriken.

"She's fine," Tenten says, voice deceptively light. 

Hinata looks up from where she's fiddling with the plastic around a piece of chocolate. Ino waggles her eyebrows. 

"Just how  _fine_ is she, Tenten?" she asks, a smirk curling over her lips. 

" _Fine_ ," Tenten presses. 

Ino drops her voice to a stage whisper, putting a hand up to her mouth to cup the sound. It won't work for any shinobi actively trying to listen, but it's enough to make Hinata realize that there is a secret being shared here, and one she isn't sure she's supposed to hear. 

"She's  _fine_ playing Shika's  _beard_?" 

Tenten throws an origami shuriken at Ino's head. Sakura bats it out of the air. 

"It keeps the Nara off Shikamaru's back," Tenten replies. "And it gives her an excuse to come to Konoha more often."

Sakura sighs around a blue raspberry sucker. 

"Seems like a lot of work," she says. "Faking an entire courting process."

Ino shrugs. 

"That's just how the noble clans are," she says, carefully unfolding Tenten's shuriken. "Besides, if it ends up with Temari playing surrogate for Shika and Neji's demon baby…"

 _Neji_? Hinata bites her tongue. She had no idea, had never really even considered - Her cousin liked men? 

"It'll strengthen ties between our villages," Tenten supplies. "Plus Suna thinks about girls like us differently than Konoha does."

Sakura's gaze suddenly turns sharp. 

"You're going to elope  _and_ immigrate?"

Tenten flushes bright red. 

"I'm fifteen! I haven't thought about it that far ahead!"

"You're also a lesbian," Sakura replies, as if the word is one people say instead of spit or hiss, "which means you move three times as fast as a straight person." 

Tenten cocks an eyebrow, then throws the pillow she's been leaning on at Sakura's head. Ino snatches it out of the air. 

"Says one half of the couple that's been dancing around each other since you two were  _nine._ "

Sakura does the impossible for the second time since Hinata has known her. She leans down, pressing herself against Ino's side, and throws an arm around the Yamanaka girl's waist. 

"And what about it?"

It's softer than the last time Hinata's heard her say it, and it bounces off Hinata's ears the way that word did. Lesbian. When Sakura said it, it almost sounded soft. Not as harsh or wicked or ugly around the edges. 

Hinata is shy and already hardly speaks, and when the conversation moves on, she doesn't fight to keep it on the topic. She goes to sleep that night, in a sleeping bag on Ino's floor, mouthing that word until she finally starts to dream. 

Lesbian? Lesbian.  _Lesbian._

* * *

It comes to her in fits and starts. The reckoning. The realization. She understands that it's something she's always known, and has always denied. But something about hearing those words said out loud by someone who doesn't say them meanly is galvanizing. 

When she's on missions outside of the village with her team, with Team Kurenai, who she knows will keep her secrets, she tries. 

In Frost Country, there's a white haired woman sitting at the bar, with eyes sharp and green as razor grass. Hinata is sixteen and she's cold to the bone, and she's only at the bar because she knows it's the only place she can get a hot cup of tea before returning to the bedroom she shares with Kurenai. 

And the thing that makes her really jump isn't the way the white haired woman looks at her. It's the way Hinata herself looks at the white haired woman. It's the first time she's ever looked at another girl and disguised her feelings as admiration or respect. 

It's the first time she recognizes desire. 

She's awkward with her words as she tries to start a conversation, but the woman is kind. There is something in the way she dresses, almost hyper-feminine that makes Hinata know she's speaking with a kindred spirit. The woman reminds her of the Godaime, with her painted nails and red lips. High femininity in an ultra masculine world. It was a signal. One that Ino used as well. One that Hinata recognizes even outside of Konoha. 

"You like lavender?" the woman asks, a coy smile on her lips. 

And this is how Hinata discovers that she, too has been signaling, long before she even knew what she ways saying with her jacket.

"It's m-my favorite flower," she stammers in response. 

The white haired woman curls a lock of Hinata's dark hair behind her ear, and the brush of her fingertip against Hinata's skin turns her whole face red. 

"And you are mine," the woman says. 

Nothing comes of it, of course, and for that Hinata is grateful. The white haired woman stays up with her all night, talks to her in a hushed voice about how to say the right things. How to move the right way. How to know when to say the truth, and who to tell it to. 

She gives Hinata a kiss on the forehead. Hinata leaves Frost Country feeling brave for having done so much, even though she feels as though she's done so little. 

* * *

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura groans during joint training with Team Kurenai and the remains of Team Kakashi. "I'm  _gay_ and I'm  _exhausted_."

Kakashi doesn't look up from his book. Naruto just taps Sakura's shoulder, and Sakura goes to sit down, and Naruto begins a combo attack with Sai against Kurenai and Shino. 

"Being gay doesn't give you an excuse to be lazy," Kakashi says, flipping a page in his book. 

Sakura folds her arms across her chest.

"That hardly stops you," she needles. 

She catches the kunai Kakashi throws at her and volleys it right back in him. He deflects it with one of his own. 

"You used to be such a cute little girl, Sakura-chan," Kakashi says. "Now you're more like the Godaime every day."

Sakura bares her teeth in a vicious smile. 

"In more ways than one."

Kakashi rolls his eye and waves at Sakura, the universal signal that she's allowed to sit out. She trots over to where Hinata is sitting and throws herself onto the ground before she grabs at her water bottle and takes a few log pulls from it. 

Hinata keeps her Byakugan active and pretends watching her teammates and Sakura's spar is the reason why she isn't speaking to her. Sakura doesn't seem to mind. In fact, she pulls a book out of her bag and starts reading it. 

Curiosity tugs Hinata's vision over before long, and it's with flushed cheeks she realizes that it's a copy of  _Oshibana_. It's adult fiction for women like Sakura. For lesbians. Hinata only knows about it because for her seventeenth birthday, Kiba got her an entire box set of the novels, Oshibana Azalea through Oshibana Zinnia. Sakura is reading a special edition copy of Briar Rose, and it's clearly well worn from the light wear and tear around the paperback cover.

Sakura catches her looking and gives her a jaunty wink. 

"I take after both my teachers," she says. "In more ways than one."

And then the words come out of Hinata's mouth before she expects them to. 

"Lilac is better."

Sakura blinks up at her from where she's on her back, the copy of Oshibana held just above her eyes so she can read it. 

"Pardon?" she asks. 

"O-Oshibana Lilac," Hinata repeats, voice slightly softer.

She knows that her team knows, but she doesn't want anyone from Team Kakashi to. She isn't like Sakura or Tenten, civilian girls, orphans with nothing to lose. 

"The prose is better," Hinata says. "And the, um, the  _scenes_ between Sayori and Hotaru are -,"

Sakura licks her bottom lip. Hinata's sentence abruptly stalls into silence. 

"They are, aren't they?" Sakura asks, smirking. 

Hinata nods, the weight of her admission surprising her with how easy it is to bear on her shoulders. Feather light. Like the pages of a copy of Oshibana turning beneath her fingers. 

* * *

The war comes and goes and Hinata is a lesbian. She watches her father die to save Neji's life, watches Hanabi step into the mantle of clan head at fourteen years old and immediately begin dismantling the systems that have defined their childhoods. 

She names Neji her heir. She has the Caged Bird Seal wiped off the foreheads of every last branch family member. She destroys the branch family entirely. 

Hinata's head spins with the sheer force of Hanabi's will. She is fiercely proud of her little sister, her clan head, and she has no issue bowing in deference to her. She knows her sister will lead them better than their father had, better than the clan heads of past had.

For Hinata's eighteenth birthday, Hanabi throws open the gates of the Hyūga compound and invites damn near the entire village inside. It's the first time the compound has been open to outsiders in generations. Hinata thinks it's too much fuss to happen on her account, but Hanabi won't hear of it, and Neji just hides his smile behind his cup of tea. 

Everyone Hinata knows comes, and some she doesn't. There are people, civilians, who come to thank her for her efforts in the war. Shinobi and kunoichi alike who clap her on the back or shake her hand and congratulate her. It occurs to her that birthdays are a surprisingly sacred thing now. They had all almost lived in a world completely without them. 

Sakura is there. At the party that is. And she's dressed in dark green and white, with low white heels, and she looks - she looks stunning. Hinata tries not to stare, but she's hyper aware. 

"Th-thank you for coming," Hinata says when Sakura approaches her, Naruto in tow and Kiba on his other side. 

"Happy to be here, Shishi," Sakura replies, smiling. 

And the odd nickname makes something in Hinata's stomach flutter. Because Sasuke had a technique called the Lion Combo when they were genin, but Sakura hadn't called him 'lion'. So what was it about Hinata's Twin Lion Fists that got her the nickname?

"For you," Sakura says, and she holds out a small parcel wrapped in shimmery white wrapping paper. 

Hinata takes it, and does her best not to let her fingers touch Sakura's. Too much too soon. 

"Thank you," Hinata replies. She waves her hand at the tables of refreshments nearby, only now noticing that Kiba has hustled Naruto off elsewhere, leaving her alone with Sakura. "Please, help yourself."

Sakura winks at her and says, "Don't mind if I do."

Hinata beats a hasty retreat. Her hands feel clammy around Sakura's gift, and she doesn't want to be seen as flustered as she is now. She makes pleasantries where she can to other guests, excusing herself as politely as possible until she manages to get inside the relative safety of the main house's front hallway. 

Through a front window, she can still see Sakura. Laughing, smiling, throwing playful punches. 

"Are you hiding?" 

Hinata doesn't jump when Neji comes up beside her because she knows his presence like she knows Hanabi's, like she used to know her father's. She barely spares him a glance. He looks good dressed in formal wear, all in Hyūga greys and whites. The only indication of his station as Hanabi's heir is the flame crest of their clan on his back. His forehead is bare of the seal and of the bandages he used to wear to cover it; his hair is pulled back in a tighter ponytail than Hyūga men usually wear. 

"From Sakura?"

Hinata doesn't say anything because she doesn't really have to. She looks at Neji, then turns her gaze back to Sakura. Her head is thrown back as she downs a cup of sake. Hinata watches the elegant line of her throat, and remembers what it was like to want that white haired woman. 

Hinata _wants_ again.

Neji doesn't say anything about it. Hinata has known his secret and hasn't even thought to say it out loud. And she isn't sure if Neji knows that she knows, but if the way that Shikamaru hangs around the Hokage Tower even when he's not working to talk to the new Jounin Commander is any indication, it's likely that Neji doesn't care who suspects what. 

So Neji only smiles at her, and gives her a gentle nudge with his shoulder. Hinata bumps him back. 

"What did she give you?" he asks, pointing down at the parcel. 

Hinata looks at it, and then with no prompting, slides her fingernail underneath the tape holding the wrapping paper to the present and begins to unwrap it. 

It's a copy of Oshibana Lilac. A special edition with a hard cover and a glossy sleeve, all soft purple and white lettering. Hinata flushes straight to the roots of her hair. 

"Just a book?" he asks, but the humor in his voice lets Hinata know that he knows  _exactly_ what kind of novel it is. "Open it. See if she wrote anything inside."

She thumbs open the book on his suggestion, and the spine gives a gentle screech from the new binding being stretched. On the third flyleaf before the story begins is a tidy scrawl that Hinata recognizes from Sakura's hospital notes. 

"To Hinata on your birthday from Sakura," Neji reads. "Tell me all your favorite flowers?"

Hinata's mouth is dry. Because she knows exactly what that means, and she knows that Sakura knows that that means and it's - 

Every day Hotaru waited for her lover to return from war, she pressed a flower. And every day, as the traveling doctor Sayori left and returned from her work in neighboring towns, she would ask Hotaru what her favorite flower was. 

And the first time the two of them went to bed together, after Hotaru found out her beloved was never coming home, after Sayori had stepped in and offered to help Hotaru take care of her young son, to give him medicine for free, to help pay her mounting bills, Sayori had told Hotaru to name all of her favorite flowers while she came undone under Sayori's gentle mouth.

Lilac was the first Oshibana novel that the author, whose pseudonym was Benibana had ever written. The others followed shortly after, retroactively coming in alphabetical order. But Lilac was the first. And this special edition - and Sakura's note - 

Neji chuckles. 

"She propositioned you," he surmises. "On your birthday."

She thwaps him on the arm with the book. He lifts an eyebrow at her. If he couldn't guess her feelings before, he certainly should be able to now. 

He says nothing to condemn or comfort her, but he does offer her his arm, and together they walk out of the main house. Sakura looks up as they do, and she raises her glass to Hinata, cheeks a little pink from the chilly air and from the spiced wine in her glass. 

Neji gives her a little squeeze on the arm. Hinata waves at Sakura, and looks out at the people gathered to celebrate. She spots Shikamaru, whose gaze is sot and fond as Neji walks beside Hinata. Beside him is Temari, and on Temari's other side is Tenten. The two kunoichi are holding hands. It's another one of those things that Hinata never thought would happen on the Hyūga compound.

Hinata decides she's going to try to be brave.

* * *

There's a fireworks display because for however steady and competent a clan head Hanabi is, she's still obnoxious. Hinata wouldn't have her younger sister any other way, wouldn't want to follow any other woman into the future of their clan. 

As the bright lights glitter overhead, Hinata stands between her little sister and her cousin. She and Neji know about each other now, and Hinata has no doubts in her mind that Hanabi knows about Neji. And if it hasn't changed her mind about making their cousin clan heir, then it wouldn't change her mind about her sister being a - a girl like Sakura, would it?

When the fireworks die down, a small hand slips into Hinata's. She knows the shape of her sister's hand well from their younger days, before their father drove them apart. But there are callouses there, and a calm strength. Support is what it is. Hinata looks down at her younger sister who is staring upwards at her namesake lights in the sky, and wonders when Hanabi had the time to grow up. 

Pale eyes catch pale eyes, and Hanabi nods her head ever so slightly. 

"Go," she mouths. 

Hinata kisses her little sister on the forehead. Hanabi squeezes her hand. 

Hinata goes. 

* * *

 

Sakura is by the koi pond. Hinata is one of the first to leave the fireworks display; once it is over, the party will be as well. 

She approaches slowly, stepping loud enough for Sakura to hear. The other woman looks up as she comes to her, and Sakura gives her a kind smile. Her pretty white sandals are in her hand and her bare feet are in the soft grass and sand around the pond. 

Unseemly, her father would mutter beneath his breath. Uncouth and impolite, her elders would say. All Hinata can think is, _'Lovely'_. 

"Sakura," she says, testing out her name without the honorific. "Thank you for coming. And for the gift. I liked that, too."

Sakura smiles and lightly bobs her head, inviting Hinata to come closer. Slowly, she does. 

"I would - I would like to tell you my favorite flowers, if I may," Hinata says, trying to make the words come out of her mouth. She had decided to be brave, to have a little courage. She just had to use it. 

Sakura is quiet. Smiling. Patient and waiting for Hinata to speak. 

"I would like to know you better first, before I tell you what they are."

"A date?" 

Hinata bites her lips together. 

"If that's alright?" 

Sakura rubs her forehead with the back of her hand, her white sandals blocking her face for a moment. 

"Yeah," she says. "I'd like that a lot, Shishi."

Hinata's smile comes to her slowly, shyly. It's the first time she's ever done anything like this, and she feels  _floaty_. Excited. Still terrified. But good. 

"I gotta say," Sakura says, "I wasn't sure you were an Oshibana girl until you told me you liked Lilac best."

An Oshibana girl. Was that the what girls like Sakura called themselves? Instead of lesbian? Hinata kind of liked the sound of it. It was sweet. Cute almost. A pressed flower girl. 

"I -,"

But the sound of more footsteps make Hinata shut her mouth faster than she can get the words out. People are coming. Clan members, close friends, and formal teachers. The fireworks are over, and they're leaving en masse. 

Sakura's face shutters, and the mirth goes right out of her eyes. 

"Hinata," she says, foregoing the nickname. "I'm - are you not -,"

Compassion must grip her, because Sakura takes a step forward, worry flickering like a candle on her pretty face. 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know you weren't - ,"

"No."

Hinata looks at Sakura. Only Sakura. She doesn't worry about the other people. Well, she does worry. She's scared. More scared than she was when she faced Pein. When she faced Neji as a genin. When she was almost stolen from her bed as a little girl.

"I am," Hinata says. 

And the word unfurls on her mouth not like a candy or a bitter herb. But soft and quiet. It comes out like the truth. 

"I'm a lesbian."

She doesn't even stutter. 

Because Hinata has known for as long as she has known that it is a word she is not supposed to apply to herself. A dirty word. A foul one. A word to be used as an insult rather than a proud moniker the way Sakura uses it. The way Tenten and Temari and Ino all use it. The way the Godaime and Mitarashi-san and Shizune-san use it. 

It's her word. It's always been her word. Not for anyone else to use against her. 

It's her native tongue, and Hinata is beginning to learn how to speak it.

* * *

 

She meets Sakura a week later for tea and sweets. The café is called Rosehips, and it is filled with women. Hinata is pretty sure it's a - a lesbian only establishment. Not that they'd turn anyone who wasn't a girl like them away, but the number of women making eyes at each other, feeding each other dango, and holding hands tells Hinata that it's a special place. A safe place. One not invaded lightly. 

Sakura is a perfect date. She gets to the compound five minutes early to pick up Hinata, and walks her to Rosehips while making polite conversation. When they get to a table, she pulls out Hinata's chair for her, and gives her recommendations on what the best fare at the teahouse is. 

The two of them get a large slice of red velvet cake to share. Sakura gets an iced coffee in a tall glass, and Hinata gets green tea. 

"I'll be honest," Sakura says, licking icing off her fork. "I'm not really looking for anything casual right now. I did that a lot during the war, and after everything, I don't think it fits."

Hinata nods slowly even though the concept alone of casual sex with several different women is still slightly beyond her ken. 

"So then," she says, picking her words carefully. "Why did you ask me to tell you what my favorite flowers are?"

Sakura tilts her head, and leans her elbows onto the table beneath them. 

"You really don't know?"

Hinata puts her hands in her lap and shakes her head. Sakura sighs, and rubs her forehead. She looks up from underneath her bangs, slightly pink at the cheeks. 

"Shishi," she says, a crooked smile on her face, "I've wanted to ask you out since you told me you read Oshibana novels."

Hinata's jaw drops minutely. That was two years ago. When they were sixteen. She swallows, fiddles with the fabric of her dark purple pants, just to have something to do with her hands. 

"I thought that was you hitting on me," Sakura continues. "I know how the noble clans can get, I was with Ino for a while when we were younger, and the Hyūga are way more stuffy than the Yamanaka so I was really surprised when you just mentioned Lilac, like the oldest of the novels, so I thought, 'Oh, she likes me'. But I held off because you didn't really talk to me about it after that."

Hinata's hands reach for her cup of tea and she sips at it. Sakura looks embarassed, if the insistent way she drops her gaze away from Hinata's is a sign she can trust. 

"Then the war happened and there wasn't time," Sakura explains. She drops her hand from her forehead, and folds her arms across her chest. "But I saw you. I saw you when you used your Twin Lion Fists to save Naruto."

"You really looked like a lion yourself. You were fierce as anything. And I could tell how scared you were. But you bought enough time for reinforcements to arrive, for Naruto to get a little of his strength back. And I guess I have a thing for dark hair and self sacrifice," she continues, having a laugh at herself.

Hinata can smile a bit at that, too, from over the rim of her teacup.

"And," Sakura says, "I just decided I had to figure out a way to get to you. A way to know for sure. So I got a copy of Lilac and waited for a chance to give it to you. I knew it was your favorite, so I knew you'd understand what I was trying to say with it."

It strikes Hinata now that Sayori asked Hotaru what her favorite flowers were  _before_ they went to bed together. When Sakura gave her that book, she wasn't asking if she could sleep with Hinata. She was asking for the chance to get to know her better. 

"So -,"

"Sakura," Hinata says, interrupting. 

The other kunoichi blinks. Hinata isn't known to interrupt others. 

"I'm sorry," Hinata adds a half beat later. "I misunderstood your intentions."

Sakura's expression clouds for a moment, and Hinata has a moment to admire that she wears her heart on her sleeve, thinks openly all over her face. It makes Sakura seem more real almost. 

"I don't - I'm very new to all of this," she says, explaining herself. "I've never dated a woman before."

Sakura's eyebrows furrow, but she doesn't look especially surprised. 

Hinata tucks a stray piece of dark hair behind her ear; Hanabi had helped her dress that morning, had pulled back her hair into a high tail with pretty white clips keeping her hair out of her eyes. The clips had been a birthday gift from Neji; he knew how Hinata preferred to keep her hair short, and they would come in handy when she eventually cut it again.

It had only stayed long because of her father's insistence. Only girls  _like that_ had hair that short. It was permissible as a child, but not as a grown woman, not as one capable of bearing children. 

Hinata thinks she's going to go get a haircut today, as soon as her first date is over. 

"But," Hinata says, putting her cup of tea down on its saucer. "I like sunflowers the best. Those are my favorite."

And just like that, like Neji, and Hanabi, Sakura understands. It's in a different way, yes, but it's understanding nevertheless. Sakura picks up her fork, and separates a piece of fluffy red velvet cake. She manages to catch a decent amount of frosting as well. 

"I like cosmos flowers," Sakura replies. "And red velvet is the best kind of cake."

And when Sakura holds out the fork to Hinata's mouth, she doesn't think of what her clan would think, what her father would say, what the village would whisper. Hinata opens her mouth, and takes a bite.

 

**Author's Note:**

> happy pride month <3


End file.
